Is it better to eat beef or pork? I didn't expect to have been eating the wrong one all along →

For meat lovers, pork and beef are probably indispensable on the table. Many people may wonder: "Is it better to eat pork or beef?"

Some people think that beef looks leaner, should have lower energy, and should contain more protein and iron, so they think beef is better.

In fact, beef is not necessarily more nutritious than pork. It depends on which piece of pork or beef you eat, and also on what kind of pig or cow you eat. Based on the data of the Chinese Food Composition Table, we have sorted out the recommended and not recommended pork and beef. Here is the list directly.

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Beef and pork red list

There are 6 types of beef on the list, namely beef ribs, beef hind leg, beef hind tendon, beef front leg, beef front tendon and beef tenderloin .

Reason for being on the list: Among all beefs, it is the best in terms of controlling energy, controlling fat and supplementing iron.

There is only one type of pork on the list, which is lean pork .

Reasons for being on the list:

1. The protein and iron content is similar to the 6 types of beef mentioned above

2. Vitamin B1 content is 9 to 18 times that of 6 types of beef

Although whole grains are rich in vitamin B1, it is difficult for white-collar workers who seldom eat at home to match coarse and fine staple foods.

However, even if you eat out every meal, it is easy to eat 50 grams of lean pork every day, which can meet 22.5% of the daily vitamin B1 requirement of adult women. Therefore, lean pork is richer in vitamin B1 than beef , which is a great nutritional advantage.

3. Although the energy and fat content are slightly higher than the six types of beef, the Chinese Dietary Guidelines recommend that you eat less livestock meat every day, and the total amount of livestock meat and poultry meat is only 40 to 75 grams per day.

Even if we allocate more of the 40 to 75 grams to livestock meat (for example, 50 grams to livestock meat), the difference in energy and fat intake when eating lean pork or these 6 types of beef is very small, so there is no need to worry about this difference.

For example, if you compare lean pork with beef tendon, which has the lowest energy, eating 50 grams of lean pork will only increase your intake of 22.5 kcal. For another example, if you compare pork with beef tenderloin, which has the lowest fat content, eating 50 grams of lean pork will only increase your intake of 2.65 grams of fat.

How lean is the lean pork here? It refers to the pork with a fat content of less than 5% to 10% , that is, the meat that looks like it has basically no fat, such as tenderloin. Friends who have no idea can refer to the picture below to choose.

Beef and pork blacklist

Specifically, it refers to the brisket, sirloin, shoulder, and spare ribs of beef, and the spare ribs, shoulder knuckle, streaky pork, rump, and ribs of pork.

Figure: Beef cuts

These 11 kinds of meat are high in energy and fat, and high in saturated fat. Excessive intake of saturated fatty acids is not good for cardiovascular health , so the Chinese Dietary Guidelines recommend that saturated fatty acid intake should be controlled within 10% of total energy.

Taking young female manual laborers (most white-collar workers) as an example, the recommended daily energy intake is 1,800 kcal, and the intake of saturated fatty acids should be controlled within 20 grams.

Let’s take pork belly as an example, which has a relatively low saturated fatty acid content.

When making braised pork, people usually choose soft pork belly with thin fat and clear fat and lean layers. Many people will probably eat four or five pieces of the fragrant braised pork at a time.

Photo: 25g pork belly (thick as a thumb, slightly larger than a normal mahjong piece) Photo by: Gu Chuanling

4 pieces are 100 grams, which means you can take in 12 grams of saturated fatty acids. You should know that milk, eggs and other foods contain saturated fatty acids. So you really need to control the amount of pork and beef with high saturated fatty acid content.

Finally, three special reminders:

1. Among the 11 types of meat mentioned above, it is obvious that beef has a higher content of saturated fatty acids, so based on this point alone, we cannot simply say that beef is healthier than pork.

2. In addition to the beef listed in the table, try not to choose fatty beef for hot pot. The fat looks so obvious, so the energy and saturated fatty acids are naturally not low.

3. The saturated fatty acid content of pork is lower than that of beef. If flaxseed is added to the feed, it can also increase the essential fatty acid α-linolenic acid for the human body and reduce saturated fatty acids, which makes its advantage in fatty acids more prominent.

summary

It is not the case that beef is more nutritious than pork. Lean pork is not inferior to beef in terms of energy, fat and protein, and it contains more vitamin B1 than beef. However, some beef has a higher content of saturated fatty acids, which needs to be controlled.

Therefore, it is important to choose the right meat according to the red and black list above, but even if it is pork and beef on the red list, don't eat too much. 50 grams a day is good enough.

References

[1] Zhao Liyun, He Yuna. China Residents Nutrition and Health Status Monitoring Report [2010-2013] Part 1: Diet and Nutrient Intake. People's Medical Publishing House. 2018

[2] Yang Yuexin. Chinese Food Composition Table 6th Edition Volume 2[M]. Peking University Medical Press, 2018

[3] Taiwan Food Data Center. https://consumer.fda.gov.tw//Food/TFND.aspx?nodeID=178&t=9&p=1

Planning and production

Source: Nutritionist Gu Chuanling

Author: Gu Chuanling, Deputy Secretary General of Capital Health Nutrition and Gourmet Society, Registered Nutritionist

Review丨Zhang Yu, researcher/PhD, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, national health science expert

Editor: Wang Mengru

Proofread by Xu Lailinlin